St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-17
PERPETUAL YOUTH.
Peculiar Superstition of the Sioux In
dams in Dakota.
MOST WONDERFUL SPRING.
It Is Believed to Be the Fountain That
Ponce de Leon Was Search
ing For.
Special 10 the Globe.

Special 10 the Globe.
CHAMBERLAIN. Oak. Dee. 15.-For
the past six years-ever since the foun-
datiOn of Chamberlain-the Sioux In
dianS have endeayored to prevent the
whites from getting possession of Ameri-
can island, which lies in the center of the
river, opposite this city. 1t was always
supposed that their reason was of mer-
cenary character. and that their object
was to cut the timber with which the
island is covered and turn it into the
bright, yellow gold which they now
coyet so much. But different reason
has lately, and by accident, been discov-
cred. 1t has has always been supposed
that when the SpaniardS failed to dis
cover the tabled fountain of perpetual
youth among the everglades of Florida,
the romantic dream o ended there
and men grew old and gray as of yOre.
Not so, however, as this narrative will
slow. Or the upper end of this island,
hidden by dropping evergreens, and
shaded by stately cOttOnwoOds, is a
spring. Ii bursts forth clear and beau
tiful and with murmur. as soft as
NJ. denis prayer, glides from its island
home into the yellow, gurgling waters of
the Missouri. The water retains the
same temperature winter and summer,
and its volume retains its uniformity
throughout the year. 1t contains,
in all probability. the different
carbonates, and that is the cause
of the yOutfl-retaining qualities which
indians attribute to it. The secret was
let out few days ago by an old hunter,
I, Pom 1aa In
the spring long before this place existed
in the fervid Imagination of John II.
King. They have thrown a sanctity
around it, and for years have been in
the habit of drinking of its life-giving
principles and of immersing the younger
members of the tribe in its mystical
depths. They imagine that its source
lies amid the perpetual fires that radi-
ate from the center of the earth, and
that the fountain is presided over by the
father of the Indian race, who
is doomed throughout all time
to regulate the temperature of the
spring for the benefit of those who
dread to see the footprints of old Time
mar their classic features. When asked
if all who drink from its liquid depths
are stamped with perpetual youth,
they are somewhat abaShed, and reply:
Nv hen they Drink OF the water or bathe
in it they must believe they will never
grow old. If they do not, the spirit who
has control of the fountain will not an
swer their prayer, and they will wither
like the leaves when the frost comes"
The only explanation for this strange
belief is that some time in the past
the spring was visited and analysed by
some parties, and the Indians, hearing
of it, have been led to believe that the
spring contains some remarkable prop
critics, which their imaginative minds
have associated with the perpetuation
of their youth. Wonders will not
cease, and the same dread of growing
old which led Ponce de Leon to brave
the storms of the Atlantic now finds
strange comparison in the Sioux Indian,
who plunges his swarthy form in the
now famous spring on the American
island. S. w. DUNCAN.